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In mathematics, "rational" is often used as a noun abbreviating "rational number". The adjective rational sometimes means that the coefficients are rational numbers. For example, a rational point is a point with rational coordinates (i.e., a point whose coordinates are rational numbers); a rational matrix is a matrix of rational numbers; a rational polynomial may be a polynomial with rational ...
Denotes the set of rational numbers (fractions of two integers). It is often denoted also by . Denotes the set of p-adic numbers, where p is a prime number. Denotes the set of real numbers. It is often denoted also by .
Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic objects such as algebraic number fields and their rings of integers , finite fields , and function fields .
Such a number is algebraic and can be expressed as the sum of a rational number and the square root of a rational number. Constructible number: A number representing a length that can be constructed using a compass and straightedge. Constructible numbers form a subfield of the field of algebraic numbers, and include the quadratic surds.
Informally, a field is a set, along with two operations defined on that set: an addition operation written as a + b, and a multiplication operation written as a ⋅ b, both of which behave similarly as they behave for rational numbers and real numbers, including the existence of an additive inverse −a for all elements a, and of a multiplicative inverse b −1 for every nonzero element b.
Another extension field of the rationals, which is also important in number theory, although not a finite extension, is the field of p-adic numbers for a prime number p. It is common to construct an extension field of a given field K as a quotient ring of the polynomial ring K [ X ] in order to "create" a root for a given polynomial f ( X ).
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In number theory, the Calkin–Wilf tree is a tree in which the vertices correspond one-to-one to the positive rational numbers.The tree is rooted at the number 1, and any rational number q expressed in simplest terms as the fraction a / b has as its two children the numbers 1 / 1+1/q = a / a + b and q + 1 = a + b / b .